PAL
IKIR, POHNPEI. December 20, 2024 – Senator Perpetua S. Konman, Chairwoman of the Committee on Health and Social Affairs, headed a delegation from the Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia to the 2024 Regional Conference for Parliaments of the Asia-Pacific Region on Global Health Security.
Senator Konman and Senator Merlynn Abello-Alfonso, Chairwoman of the Special Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Issues, along with Legislative Staff Attorney Yolanda Rondon represented the FSM Congress at the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference in Bangkok, Thailand from December 2-3, 2024. The two-day conference is jointly hosted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, World Health Organization, and the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Thailand.
The Global Health Security Conference was composed of an opening session plus four addition panel discussion sessions with breakout working groups:
Opening Session – Setting the scene – Asia Pacific, A region prone to disease outbreaks;
Session I – The global health security architecture: What implications for countries; Session II – Leveraging parliamentary functions for health security preparedness; Session III – Parliamentary leadership for building trust and social cohesion; and Session IV – Building resilience through multistakeholder action.
The delegation represented the FSM Congress on key issues ranging from health security risks, food and water security, and emergency preparedness plans to universal health coverage, technological innovation, and the 2005 International Health Regulations. The 2005 International Health Regulations issued by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the World Health Organization, and amended in 2024, provide guidance on how to establish and maintain thirteen core capacities in order to detect, assess, notify and report on public health risks and respond to public health risks and emergencies.
As the only small island Pacific state present at the regional conference, the FSM’s voice was integral at the first Asia-Pacific Regional conference on Global Health Security. Both Senators who are doctors by profession, raised awareness on the unique health security challenges and risks face by the FSM and small Pacific island states where disease outbreaks may be exasperated by climate change events.
On December 2, 2024, Chairwoman Abello-Alfonso delivered the FSM intervention statement in Session II – Leveraging parliamentary functions for health security preparedness. Senator Abello-Alfonso’s intervention highlighted the responsive frameworks put in place that aid in the FSM’s emergency preparation and response to disease outbreaks. Such measures include strengthening health data systems throughout the Nation and implementation of updates to the Electronic Health Record System, and the national and state departments of public health surveillance and monitoring, through health data collection and reporting of influenza, acute respiratory illnesses, and water borne and vector borne diseases. Legislation has also been crucial to strengthening and building the FSM’s emergency preparedness, including but not limited to the enactment of the Healthy Border Protection Act of 2022 and the SAFE Pharmaceutical Act of 2022.
The SAFE Pharmaceutical Act of 2022, regulates the entry of all pharmaceuticals into the nation in order to ensure FSM citizens receive and have access to quality and effective medicines. Senator Abello-Alfonso noted that the legislation, “it provides the framework for the regulation of pharmaceuticals during a state of emergency as well, providing the governing mechanism and standards that have to be met in advance of the acceptance of donation of pharmaceuticals during an emergency, including vaccinees.”
Abello-Alfonso’s statement also reflected on her professional medical experience as a doctor in the FSM during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Senator’s medical experience is integral to the urgency of developing health security legislation, and policies to address the challenges faced during the pandemic and the lessons learned.
Chairwoman Konman was a featured panelist on Day One, in Session III – Parliamentary leadership for building trust and social cohesion. Senator Konman’s presentation discussed the responsive frameworks put in place to aid FSM’s emergency preparation and response to disease outbreaks through close partnership with the states and communities. Such measures include the development of new public health security preparedness plans at the national and state level with reassessment triggers in place upon detection of changes in public health risk indicators.
Senator Konman’s presentation also reflected on the misinformation and disinformation that was spreading about COVID-19, including on the need and effectiveness of the vaccinee and booster shots, quarantine, limiting community gatherings, practicing hygiene measures, and use of alternative medicines. Konman emphasized the need for the FSM national government to increase public health awareness measures to combat misinformation and disinformation.
Due to the geography and climate change impacts, communities in the outer-islands and hard to reach areas are particularly vulnerable to accessing reliable sources of public health information in a timely manner, where a significant part of the public health response requires government health authorities to sail to these islands to provide the necessary services and conduct public awareness, which takes time. The challenges to providing health care, limited access to health care professionals, and electric and internet connectivity, as well as limited health care infrastructure and transportation infrastructure, are similar challenges to combating misinformation and disinformation; where social media often serves as a primary mechanism for communities members to look for information, rather than government sources.
On Day Two of the Conference during Session IV, in the breakout group on universal health coverage, Senator Konman stressed the FSM’s commitment to increasing health care access to all and spearheaded in depth discussion on developing different health care regulatory schemes as a mechanism to increase access and equity. Senator Abello-Alfonso’s participation during the Session IV, in the breakout group on climate change, emphasized the interconnectedness of climate change and public health. The FSM Delegation also raised privacy and data protection concerns during Session IV, breakout group on technology and innovation. The FSM Delegation urged the Asia-Pacific Region to engage in a comprehensive review of current legislation and polices in order to identify gaps in privacy and data collection protections prior to the use of artificial intelligence in health surveillance systems.
The 2024 Global Health Security Conference outcomes and meeting summary can be accessed here.
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